Related Tags:

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Mayor Francis Slay has joined 17 other big city mayors who’ve written to congress urging something be done about the consumption of those sugary drinks.

Slay and the other mayors wrote to Speaker Boehner and Minority Leader Pelosi mainly to voice concern over proposed cuts in the food stamp program, but within the letter is also a request to do more about the consumption of soda and sugary drinks that the mayors say contribute to obesity and billions of dollars in added medical expenses.

The letter doesn’t ask for a ban on the sugary drinks by food stamp recipients, but it does ask for incentives for the recipients to purchase fruit and vegetables instead.

The letter states that a third of American adults are obese and its time to evaluate limits on food stamp purchases of such drinks.